Media Bloggers Association
From Skinny Moose Data Center
The Media Bloggers Association was founded in 2004 by dozens of leading bloggers as a "mutual defense pact" for bloggers facing legal threats. Among the founding members: Robert Cox, Jeff Jarvis, Jay Rosen, Dan Gillmor, Rebecca MacKinnon, J.D. Lasica, Terry Heaton, Matt Sheffield, Bryan Keefer, Patrick Frey. Other leading members include John Amato of Crooks and Liars, Glenn Reynolds of Pajamas Media/Instapundit, Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice, Jeralyn Merritt of Talk Left, Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters/Hot Air and many others.
In the course of the past five years, the MBA has provided a wide range of legal support services to hundreds of bloggers facing legal threats related to their blogs. MBA lawyers have represented dozens of bloggers including most recently Joan Stewart in the Oprah Winfrey case -- working with lawyers for Arianna Huffington and The Huffington Post. Other well-known cases include Associated Press/Drudge Retort, State of Maine/Maine Web Report, Batesline/Tulsa World.
To support its First Amendment mission, the MBA worked with Media/Professional Insurance to developing the first-ever media liability insurance for bloggers in 2008. The MBA has a network of 75 attorneys operating in 20 states available to offer members basic risk assessments in the event of legal threats for defamation, privacy violation, and copyright violation.
As part of its commitment to supporting bloggers who wish to operate in a journalistic capacity, we have obtained media credentials for bloggers for presidential debates (GOP-Baltimore, DEM-California, Ohio, DC), federal trials (Scooter Libby), conferences (NAA, ASNE), shareholder meetings (Gannett), sporting events (LPGA, MLB) and more. MBA has set up content distribution deals for members with news outlets like Associated Press, Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive, PBS and others.
Statement of Principles
The Media Bloggers Association celebrates diversity of experience, purpose and opinion. Our members include veteran and newly minted bloggers, seasoned journalists and those who don't consider themselves journalists, political conservatives, moderates and liberals. We recognize that people join the Media Bloggers Association for various reasons: to promote freedom of expression in cyberspace, for mutual support, education, training, legal support, collegiality, greater visibility for their efforts.
The Media Bloggers Association believes in the independence and freedom of expression of our members. We recognize that our members are autonomous agents who take varied approaches to blogging. As a result, it's not the place of the MBA to create a code of conduct for bloggers or to enforce such rules. When we blog, each of us is accountable for our own actions, and we own our own words.
Blogging is not only a publishing medium but also a vibrant form of personal expression. Media Bloggers Association members slip in and out of roles as journalists, reviewers, poets, pundits or provocateurs with each post. When our members practice journalism, they have the same rights and responsibilities as any other journalist and must be accorded the same First Amendment rights and legal privileges as those who work for traditional media organizations. We accept the Wikipedia definition of journalism as "a discipline of collecting, verifying, reporting and analyzing information gathered regarding current events, including trends, issues and people."
The Media Bloggers Association encourages members to comply with commonly accepted standards of fairness and transparency. We believe that it is up to readers to develop their own trust relationships with bloggers and we ought not to interfere in that relationship. We believe our role is limited to presenting standards as aspirations and offering guidance on how to achieve those aspirations through education, robust discussion and mutual support.